Creating a better matrix

An Expansion the Benefits Mentees and Mentors 

Started with two Stonehill mentors, 20 motivated local high school students and a $50,000 budget that included $15,000 of self-funding, C4C today is a $2 million organization in the midst of launching a new chapter. It now employs 15 people serving 200 students from 30 colleges across Massachusetts and Rhode Island who work with 4,500 kids through in-school, after-school and summer programming. 

Stonehill recently announced that the organization will be its first external partner as part of its recently launched Experiential Education Guarantee. Taylor is expecting more colleges to follow suit. 

These developments are the foundation of his new matrix – upending the idea of service as linear and creating a model that allows participants to simultaneously lift, be lifted and join forces to create a complex and mutually beneficial web of support. 

“My favorite part of being a mentor was that I could see myself in my mentees which made the experience much more meaningful,” Johnel Roberts Geronimo ’20, who joined C4C in his sophomore year at Stonehill. “I knew exactly how imperative it was to have a mentor.” 

A business management major with a minor in communications, he credits his C4C experience as inspiring him to create his own nonprofit organization in his home city of Salem called Young Soldiers Success Group. “It’s a mentoring program for Salem youth focused on strengthening the mind, body and soul,” he said. 

A Two-Year Paid Experience for College Mentors 

As C4C grows its college component, a key element is the College-to-Career Fellowship, a two-year paid experience that helps college students explore who they are, what they love, and where they’re headed. The fellowship is built around a hands-on Career Exploration Lab that starts the summer after their first year at college and continues through junior year. 

“This model turns career coaching into more than guidance,” said Taylor. “It becomes a system of belonging, purpose, and momentum that keeps students in school and sets them up for life after college.”  

“The first step is we say to the college student, ‘you have to figure out how you can reduce this kid’s office referrals by 10%, how can you improve their attendance by seven days and how you can improve their literacy grade by one letter,’” Taylor said. “It’s a skill set that they can talk about in a very tangible way with a future employer. We're giving them real experiences teaching them how to inspire and how to communicate.” 

With that foundation, Coaching4Change then layers on career exploration. Based on the college student’s interests, it provides panels, workshops and informational interviews to help them solidify their career goals. 

“And then we reconnect them with career services,” Taylor said. “Because the idea is by your junior year, you've had enough real experiences to go into the career service to say what you like and don't like and what direction you would like to go in. And it's not all conceptual.” 

It’s in its early stages, but Taylor sees potential for tremendous growth. He also has advice for anyone who feels lost in their own matrix: Reflect on what you really want and then explore. 

“Doesn’t matter if the steps are backward, forwards or sideways,” he said. “It all adds up to this opportunity to redesign and create change within ourselves.”